City jewellers set to shine online

With corporates selling online and youngsters, the buying power of who is on the rise, opting for online shopping, retail players in the city have already seen a dip in their sales. Hence, the decision to go online.Komal Gautham | TNN | November 03, 2015, 12:30 IST

With corporates selling online and youngsters, the buying power of who is on the rise, opting for online shopping, retail players in the city have already seen a dip in their sales. Hence, the decision to go online.COIMBATORE: In a bid to eat into the market share of big players, who have gone online with gold coins and diamonds, retail jewellery outlets in the city are mulling the option of following them suit. The city has nearly 350 registered retail outlets and almost as many unregistered outlets.

According to D R Raghunath, president of Tamil Nadu Jewellers Federation and owner of DAR Paradise, online sales of jewellery have gone up by 65% across the country. With corporates selling online and youngsters, the buying power of who is on the rise, opting for online shopping, retail players in the city have already seen a dip in their sales. Hence, the decision to go online.

“Most IT professionals buy jewellery only as an investment. They prefer online shopping as they do not have the time to visit retail outlets,” said Raghunath.

Naresh Chetan, director of Zaveri diamonds and gold, feels the future is online sale. “Though people in Tamil Nadu are still conservative when it comes to buying gold jewellery, as they prefer to feel and try the product before making the buy, the future is online market,” he said.

Already, nearly 10 retail outlets in the city have set up online portals. Moreover, with unregistered outlets mushrooming at every nook and corner of the city, the retail shop owners are of the opinion that online is the next big thing.

“We launched an online portal nearly five years back and we have received good response. We were the first to sell jewellery online. We have recorded 40% growth in our online sales. Our plan is to gradually take the entire business online as that is the future,” said Naresh.

Though the retail outlets prefer selling products online, not many are able to market their products successfully. There are several challenges waiting them – winning the trust of customers, giving them the feel of the product and a 3D outlook to show the customer how it would look on them.

K Krishnamurthy, president of Coimbatore jewelers association said unless technology develops and the online portals fulfill these prerequisites, online business will remain a big challenge. “Most of them have just upgraded their website and are just ready to take orders online,” he said, adding he himself was apprehensive about online jewellery business.

But, retail outlet owners said in the next ten years, online jewellery business would be the trend. They are also betting big on low-priced jewellery. With the changing trends and most youngsters not preferring to buy heavy jewellery, the low-priced jewellery is the next big thing, they said.

“These days, youngsters do not prefer heavy jewellery even for wedding,” said K Srinivasan, managing director of Emerald jewellery retail limited. “If we need to reach out to our customers throughout the world, we will have to go online. Youngsters do not worry about spending an extra Rs1000 for a quality product, if he can buy it from home. Our portal, jewel one, will go online from January,” he said.

Suraj Shanthakumar, director, business strategies Kirtilal Kalidas, said online market has immense potential. “We had gone online six months back. This segment definitely has immense potential and will value add to retail sales,” he further said.